Ce-Oh no he didnt! Part XXX - Who wants to get robbed? Microsoft sez, "We want it to be us."

Does our collective ear deceive us? If pirates are to plunder, Microsoft now wants them to board the Windows ship first. The news came about at last week's Morgan Stanley Technology conference where MS business group prez Jeff Raikes stated, "If they're going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than somebody else. We understand that in the long run the fundamental asset is the installed base of people who are using our products." Okay Jeff, you have a point there. A sure indicator of building loyalty from piracy is getting an entire nation to attribute their booming IT industry to burgled MS software -- and let's not forget how the whole Viodentia fiasco blew up in ya face. Raikes now trumpets MS' next steps, backed by its already-in-effect anti-piracy campaign, complete with imagery, clever one-liners, and scare tactics / empty-ish threats. So what's the end goal here? According to Raikes, MS is the new software missionary, attempting to educate pirates and "convert them to licensing the software." We've got no idea when they expect this to actually happen -- maybe when Satan phones Gates regarding DRM.